Tapping wave energy to address rising global energy requirements
Even as coal and
natural gas remain the main energy sources, renewable
energy sources will
have an increasingly important role to play in the
global energy mix.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)
estimates, over a
quarter of the world’s energy consumption will be generated
by wind, solar and
hydroelectric power by 2030.
Power generated from
the sun and wind is subject to prerequisites that
cannot be met
everywhere. The insufficient base load capacity of such energy
forms is another
problem. Wind farms only produce power when there
is enough wind; solar
power only flows during the day.
“No single renewable
energy source works best all the time in all
situations. To ensure
as high a supply security as possible without conventional
energy sources in the
future, it is necessary to follow a multi-track
approach,” opined Dr.
Martin Grunwald, Global Product Development,
Engineering Silicones
business unit, Wacker Silicones.
Wave
energy
Even though at a
nascent stage of development, maritime wave power
generation has
immense potential in the non-conventional energy space, according
to Dr. Grunwald.
“Theoretical potential of maritime wave power is higher than
today’s global
electricity demand,” he added.
Ocean wave energy is characterized
by a higher energy density and
improved availability
compared to photovoltaic and wind energy. However
the conversion of the
slow, random, reversing energy flows with very high
extreme values into
phase-locked synchronous electricity with power quality
acceptable to a
utility network is very hard. Currently available solutions for
the use of wave
energy are based on hydraulic components. Due to high
maintenance costs,
these are often too expensive to compete with wind power
plants.
“There is a need to
find new concepts for transforming mechanical
wave energy directly
into electrical energy,” Dr. Grunwald pointed out.
One possible solution
to improve existing wave power technologies
could be the use of
electroactive polymers (EAPs). With the aid of EAPs, the
installation and
maintenance costs for ocean wave plants can be reduced
significantly compared
to today’s hydraulic technologies.
Wave energy
converters based on EAPs will have no need for energy
transformation,
minimum moving parts, and enable direct energy conversion.
As
part of a joint project sponsored by the German
Federal Ministry
of Education and Research, Wacker is developing a silicone
elastomer that
satisfies special requirements for energy production in the low
frequency
range (0.1-1Hz). Due
to their excellent electrical and mechanical properties,
as well as their
stability and environmental compatibility, silicones are the
materials best suited
for EAP generators for energy production from wave
power plants. In this
project, Wacker is not solely focusing on
material development.
The company is also concentrating
its efforts on the
manufacture of silicone films to be used in
so-called EAP stacks,
informed Dr. Grunwald. “Here, a key challenge is
to produce flawless
films with very high layer thickness accuracy. To this
end, Wacker has a
special pilot plant at its Burghausen site for developing
such manufacturing
processes. The films produced at this plant feature
thicknesses of 20-100
μm and specific dielectric strengths of over 100
kV/mm,” he added.
Chemical
Weekly April 2, 2013
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